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Higgins and Drew weather the elements to win Rally in the 100 Acre Wood

February 23, 2013

Not even icy weather could stop David Higgins and Craig Drew from winning the Rally in the 100 Acre Wood . Photo by RALLY AMERICA

The sudden arrival of winter ice and snow conditions could not prevent Subaru Rally Team USA's David Higgins and Craig Drew from winning the Rally in the 100 Acre Wood held on February 22-23rd in Salem, Missouri. The hard fought victory gave Higgins his first 100 Acre Wood Rally victory in three attempts at one of the more slippery events in recent memory.

On the first day Higgins and Drew fell behind early to Hoonigan Racing's Ken Block and Alex Gelsomino and to Rockstar Energy Drink Rally Team's Antoine L'Estage and Nathalie Richard until a fateful stage 6, the first nighttime stage. Block suffered frontend damage and L'Estage retired from the event with overheating issues that left Higgins with the overall lead.

It was a disappointing withdrawal for L'Estage who hoped to build on his Championship points lead after winning the Michigan based Sno*Drift Rally in late January.

Block rejoined the event at the beginning of the second day using SuperRally rules, which allows a team to reenter with time penalties, only to retire again from the event with an electrical throttle problem on stage 10. Block held a psychological advantage having previously won six 100 Acre Wood Rallys - the most by any Rally America driver.

Higgins then commanded a six minute lead over Joseph Burk and Alex Kihurani in second place and Lauchlin O'Sullivan and Scott Putnam in third place. Higgins won 9 of the last 10 stages of the day towards his overall victory.

"This is one rally we haven't won before and to win it now is a great feeling especially the way things happened," said Higgins, "Our victory appeared not to be close, but giving the difficulty of the rally and the conditions that margin could have disappeared in an instance."

Higgins is the reigning 2012 Rally America National Championship. With this win Higgins assumes the Championship lead on route to defending his title.